A great variety of instruments are used at the present time for measurement of the heat of combustion of gases. The so-called compensation meters that in principle compensate the differences in the heat of combustion of the test gas through the heat produced in a compensation source whose energy input is measured are often used for continuous measurement. In a number of these meters, an electrically heated block serves as the compensation source. In this case, the issue must be solved of attaining an equilibrium state between the input of heat from the compensation and test sources and the heat dissipation into the environment. A possible solution to this problem is described in a patent CH 593484 where the test and compensation heat sources are placed in the meter block that is connected to the cooling block by means of a heat-conducting element and the heat gradient between the measuring and cooling blocks is maintained constant and measured. The outer mantle around the measuring block is a part of the thermal insulation preventing heat dissipation into the environment along pathways other than that via the heat-conducting element. Such a measuring instrument is suitable for determining the heating capacity of a stable source placed in the measuring chamber but is less suited to continuous measurement of the heat of combustion of gases, where the gas passes through the measuring space and where it would be difficult to thermally insulate the measuring space. Another solution can be seen in a patent SU 1160294, where gases pass through the measuring chamber which is neighbouring to the compensation chamber and where the two chambers are interconnected by a heat-conducting material while the outer mantle of the meter is equipped with ribs for heat dissipation under which semiconductor thermo batteries are placed. This design is adapted for gas passage but it seems that this system combining controlled heat dissipation across thermo batteries and cooling ribs and thermal insulation of the remaining surface of the outer mantle, is rather complicated and it might be difficult to practically attain rapid and sufficiently sensitive regulation of heat dissipation. Further patents, SU 1286979, 1288567, 1390557, 1402894, 1420496, 1430849, 1430850, 1430851, 1492254 and 1492255, include attempts to compensate the above drawbacks of instruments of similar types by modifying the arrangement of the measuring and compensation chambers and by adding further heating blocks.